For LeBron James, he is not the face of the Los Angeles Lakers franchise. Anthony Davis is.

“He is the face [of the franchise]… You look at all these [retired] numbers that surround this facility, all the greats that have come here and AD is one of them,” LeBron said of his teammate during Monday's Media Day, per ESPN.

LeBron James is about to enter his 21st season in the NBA, but he's still among the best players in the league. There hasn't been any sharp decline in his play so far, and he and the Lakers expect him to continue leading the franchise on the court in the upcoming 2023-24 NBA campaign. Davis, on the other hand, is an undeniably important piece for the Lakers, who fell short of making it to the NBA Finals last season.

In the 2022-23 NBA season, Davis led the Lakers in win shares (9.0) — 3.4 better than everyone on the team. In addition to that, Davis had a share of the lead with LeBron in terms of Value Over Replacement Player (VORP) with 4.0 among Lakers players. Davis also signed a three-year max extension with the Lakers worth $177.13 million last August.

But no matter how one looks at it, both LeBron and Davis undoubtedly have crucial roles in Los Angeles. The Lakers will go as far as where those two take them despite all the front-office moves they have made in the offseason so far.

The Lakers will kick off their 2023-24 NBA season with a road game against the team that eliminated them from title contention in the last campaign, the Denver Nuggets.